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JWs Refashioned...

THE CURE CRISIS

CHAPTER
ELEVEN:

THE CHURCH
.....................................

The booming voice of the priest bellowed out, "Since the
days of the Last Administration, and the revelation that the Iran-Israeli
Crisis of 2014 declared the official end of the Church Age; have we all
struggled for meaning in our lives!”

Matthew Daniels had grown up listening to such religious
propaganda his entire life. It seemed that every eight to twelve months,
with the revelation of the latest “New Light” a new pet word or catch phrase
was being ushered into everyone‘s vocabulary. The old, out-of-dated
phrases became a warning sign to the Faithful that a believer had gone astray.
Therefore, non-believers were easy to spot. The rhetoric of
terminology had changed over the years, but the theme remained the same: The
Church was always on some razor’s edge of being snuffed out. For
persecution was a constant threat to stand up against.

The High Bishop continued his call to the faithful with, “It was
then that The Great Tribulation of the Saints began, and the flood gates of
hell themselves were thrown open wide!" The speaker's voice rose as Amen
resounded throughout the sanctuary's audience. Accentuating a gesturing
hand in the air, the ornately robed figure behind the lectern added, "Yet
- yet, with the advent of the Emulator in our midst came the manifestation of
the long prophesied Day of Resurrection of the true believers. The
spiritually destitute have been revitalized into the Global Order of this
gathered Brotherhood today. For only with the acceptance of this Divine
light is there any hope beyond the sin of natural death. Salvation is
found only in the surrendering-release of the broken spirit, and only in His
True Church!"

The Lee-Roberts device had become a fixture in every Church, and
almost as ubiquitous as the Crucifixion itself. Its use was as common as
the collection plate. Everyone knew that, more than 12 units, (which
equated to 12 years of an extended lifespan), caused a permanent side effect on
the human body with its discoloration of the eyes. It became the sign
that a true Christian had indeed been “born again”. For the physical mark
of jaundiced eyes was an undeniable evidence of an inward spiritual change.
Sure, you could deny you ‘belonged’ to the Church, but the assumption was
always there. Yes, Satan had his counterfeit organization in the guise of
the Underground’s misguiding’s, but it was The Church alone that could save
one’s immortal soul; via the Emulator.

Mathew had believed so much of the official, ever-changing
doctrine for so long without question as a child; but, over the last few months
he had begun reading the Scriptures himself. Strange the difference he
began noticing in his own head space of thinking. It was beginning to
dawn on him that the context of reading really seemed to vary drastically from
what he had heard in Sanctuary all of his life. For the more he read the
more the message of the Church seemed to be beyond disturbing to him. At times
it was just downright dishonest.
One day, while passing along an alley way, one he had been down a
hundred times before something caught his eye as if for the first time. A
worn and tattered poster of Smokey the Bear had been plastered on the
vandalized brick wall squeezing the two buildings close together. Its fading,
bold print caption still read: ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT remained; the phrase “Forest
fires” had been ripped off. The badly stained poster underneath it was in
even worse condition pasted over yet another copy of the same. But it got
Matthew to thinking, and the first thing that came to him was, ‘If not me then
who’ is going to bring any change to the Church?
From that moment onward Matthew Daniels had begun finding himself in
troublesome conversation in his Church circles. After the Sermon-talks on
Sunday morning he would ask his own myriad of growing questions during the
Study period instead of answering the stated ones. The frustration of his
peers mounted as they tried to fill in all the holes with “proof-text”
doctrines that only lead to even more questions in Matthew’s aching head.

Then one
day the stomach churning realization struck Matthew undeniably when an Elder,
Jonus Neardan said, “Need to be careful with all the questions Matt, some folks
may think you’re becoming an Apostate.” Truth of the matter hit him square in
the face. He was an Apostate. Death was
now on his heels.